Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches are treats (or a lunch) for kids and grownups all over America and UK. PB & J are also one of the easiest, cheapest and no fuss diet staples for many vegans.

You can even find PB & J on many menus in restaurants and diners as an option for children. The first time I heard about peanut butter was when I read old Donald Duck comics and saw Duck Tales cartoons as a kid. I saw that Huey, Dewey and Louie ate peanut butter sandwiches and I had no idea what that was or how it tasted like. I had my first taste of peanut butter when I was 18 years old. Yes, you read that right, I was a peanut butter virgin until I was 18! I worked as a nanny and a housekeeper for British family in Prague. That is where I first tried an imported peanut butter smeared on a toast. You could not buy peanut butter in Czech Republic at that time (they only started selling it in stores a few years ago). I did not like the taste at first though. I fell in love with it when I moved to USA and for the last 7 years I have been trying to make up for the 18 years without peanut butter :-)))

I have been addicted to this dark chocolate peanut butter for over a year now. I love peanut butter and chocolate combination and I don't know anyone who does not....

This is the closest thing to a vegan Nutella that I found at my local Whole Foods. Compared with other vegan Nutella style spreads, this one is very affordable. Imagine if you melted a bowl of Reese's Pieces and placed it into a jar, that is how this stuff tastes like! No, wait, it tastes better, plus it does not contain any dairy or other creepy animal ingredients. This peanut butter is so smooth and thick and it always spreads nicely on everything. I love it on toast, bananas, over vanilla ice cream, blended into smoothies, as a dip for pretzels, in crapes (pancakes), and straight from the jar. I also use it as a cupcake frosting (and muffin frosting here).

I was ecstatic when they sent me two other "flavored" peanut butters to review. All of their peanut butters are natural and no-stir which is a BIG plus for me. I hate when I put my natural peanut butter in the fridge and the peanut butter gets stiff and I cannot smear it or scoop it out. It takes forever to get it out of the jar and then the stiff peanut butter chunk takes even longer to get soft enough to be smeared on bread. Or sometimes the peanut butter has a layer of oil on top and I have to stir it, while the oil usually gets all over the bottle. I don't have to worry about these problems with Peanut Butter & Co peanut butters. I also love the fact that the flavors I tried were vegan and contained no high fructose corn syrup or hydrogenated oils. And they are gluten free for those who are on gluten free diet, win, win, win!

Just when I thought that nothing could beat the "Dark Chocolate Dreams" Peanut Butter, I found a competition. This flavor is equally as amazing as the dark chocolate peanut butter. Extremely creamy, almost velvet like experience. Sweet and buttery, with a delightful cocoa butter flavor. I ate most of this straight from the jar over the past few weeks.....And some on toast with raspberry jam (my new favorite combination), on plain toast, with peaches, and in banana ice cream.

Mmmmmmm......This peanut butter tastes just like a cinnamon raisin bread smeared with peanut butter!!! It is very creamy and the pieces of raisins give it a nice caramelized, sweet crunchy character. The cinnamon and raisin make a really lovely combination. You can even smell the raisins and cinnamon! I tried it straight from the jar with one spoon. Then I grabbed another spoon and another and soon I had a sink full of dirty spoons.....I am a bit ashamed that I ate 1/4 of the jar in one sitting....Well, I still had enough left to add to my oatmeal, to smear on my toast and to eat with banana. I even filled a baked apple with this peanut butter after the apple was fully baked. Sooooo good!

Here is my Dark Chocolate Dreams Raspberry sandwich :-)

I made an awesome breakfast recipe but the picture was horrible so I am not posting it. Here is the recipe though:

Slightly defrost bananas. Place them into a food processor and process 3-5 minutes, or until smooth and creamy, scraping the sides several times. Add peanut butter and process until well incorporated. Enjoy!

Chocolate Covered Peanuts Smoothie

1 cup almond milk

1 banana, peeled

3 Tbs "Dark Chocolate Dreams" Peanut Butter

optional maple syrup to taste

optional chopped peanuts for topping

Blend everything in a blender until smooth and creamy. Top with chopped peanuts if desired. Enjoy!

About Me

I am a Czech Vegan living in America. I am working on my first vegan cookbook. On this blog I share my recipes, my thoughts on vegan living, vegan products reviews and other fun things. Two of my recipes were published in the Vegetarian Times magazine, as winning recipes in their recipe contests (November/December 2010 issue and September 2012 issue) and another recipe was published by Eating Well in the cookbook EatingWell Fast & Flavorful Meatless Meals: 150 Healthy Recipes Everyone Will Love (2011), and Eating Well magazine (August 2012 issue).
I love cooking and baking, running, and I enjoy veganizing Czech and American recipes. I am an animal rescuer, chocoholic and a tea lover.
I would like to mention that some of the products that I talk about on my blog were generously given to me with no obligation to write a positive review. If you make vegan products and want them to be featured and reviewed on my blog, let me know. You can email me at czechvegan (at) yahoo.com. My old email address czech.vegan (at) yahoo.com was compromised so I can no longer access it.